Director's Message

Aloha, I am Mark Moses and I am extremely proud to have been given the opportunity to serve as your new Director of the Office of Veterans’ Services (OVS). 

While working at OVS, many of you have asked about my background.  I would like to share the following with you.

After graduating from high school and before beginning college, I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on Jan. 31, 1967.  I was an air control/anti-aircraft weapons electronics operator and was eventually promoted to staff sergeant and on the gunnery sergeant list when I earned my college degree in physics through the Naval Enlisted Scientific Education Program NESEP), and accepted a commission as Marine second lieutenant.

After earning my flight officer wings I became an electronic warfare officer and mission commander in EA-6A and (later after transition training) EA-6B tactical jet aircraft operating ashore and aboard aircraft carriers.  Because of my mustang status and previous enlisted grade, my call sign became “Gunny”.

After tours from Southeast Asia to Asia to Europe, on and over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and in at least 10 States, I retired in 1991 with nearly 25 years as a major and returned to my Makakilo (now part of Kapolei) home on Oahu.

I worked in Hawaii as a senior systems engineer, Computer Sciences Corporation, Applied Technologies Division, Arlington Va., and as their senior project engineer at Pacific Missile Test Center/Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMTC/PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai.

I became increasingly involved with community and service organization.  In 1994, my wife and I led a petition drive to form a new neighborhood board on the Ewa Plains because the  new Second City of Kapolei was being born.  I ran for and was elected to this board and served until elected to the House of Representatives in 1996 where I served until 2006. 

I am married and live with my wife Kyong Soon (Suk) Moses, and children Michael (New Mexico Tech),  Matthew (Kapolei High School), and twins Madelyn and Mitchell (Kapolei Middle School). 

Both my eldest daughter Michelle (USNR), and son James (former USN), live in California with their families. My eldest son, Jon (USA) died while a member of the 45th Support Group, Schofield Barracks. 

Now that I’ve shared my background, I would like to address some initiatives I believe will allow the Office of Veterans’ Services to improve services to Hawaii’s veterans.

We have hired an information specialist, Jayme Sato. She will  prepare regular and special editions of the Hawaii Veteran newsletter, redesign and maintain an upto-date informative and exciting website, inform the media and public of veteran’s events and activities, and will chronicle and photograph them.

We also hired a clerk, Ina Wienecke, for our Veteran Services Branch at the main OVS office at Tripler Hospital.  She has improved our capability to assist veterans by filing and retrieving client’s case files and Form DD214s,  responding to visitors questions, and greeting and routing clients to counselors or other service providers. 

In addition, we hired a temporary counselor for our Maui Office, and have completed on-site training for our “roving counselor”, John Condello, who is located at the main OVS office.  Together with our Oahu, Kauai and Big Island counselors, our Veteran Services coordinator leads a dedicated team to serve our veterans statewide.

The final service we provide our veterans and their families is interment in a veteran cemetery with decorum and appropriate honors.  Veterans deserve a final resting place complete with perpetual care.  In adherence to best burial practices, we have begun procuring Burial Vaults for use in all burials in Veterans Cemeteries statewide.  The use of vaults helps maintain the aesthetics of the grounds and makes it safer for visiting loved ones, with less maintenance used for leveling.  Maintenance personnel can devote more time to grooming the cemetery grounds.